Morning Commute Through DC

[huskerdont]

@SurlyTed1187 137335 wrote:

I recently moved to N. Alexandria (Arlandria), and work in Takoma Park, MD. It’s a 13.5 mile commute in the mornings if I come the most direct route. I’m
finding as the weather is improving, the crowds of tourists are growing around the tidal basin/national mall/white house.

As I come off the 14th street bridge, I have to navigate my way past the TJ memorial, Tidal Basin, National Mall, and White House.

What alternatives during this part of the route have you found to avoid the large crowds of clueless tourists as they visit the monuments, and other sights?

You could stay on the MVT a little longer and use either the TR Bridge or Key Bridge. Not sure how that affects your route or route distance, but either would get you past most of the tourist traffic.

When commuting to Lanham, I used to ride up the CCT from Key Bridge then drop off and cross Rock Creek Park using Chestnut/Wise and Sherrill/Aspen, then ride through Takoma Park. It added mileage but kept me away from areas I didn’t want to bike through. Other than a brief bit along Beach Drive, it was pretty low stress (until crossing the Anacostia, which wouldn’t affect you).

[scoot]

@SurlyTed1187 137335 wrote:

I recently moved to N. Alexandria (Arlandria), and work in Takoma Park, MD. It’s a 13.5 mile commute in the mornings if I come the most direct route. I’m
finding as the weather is improving, the crowds of tourists are growing around the tidal basin/national mall/white house.

As I come off the 14th street bridge, I have to navigate my way past the TJ memorial, Tidal Basin, National Mall, and White House.

What alternatives during this part of the route have you found to avoid the large crowds of clueless tourists as they visit the monuments, and other sights?

Maybe try Ohio Dr to 23rd to New Hampshire? There’s a fair amount of traffic on 23rd, but you could either bail on F to 22nd, or else take 20th/C/Virginia/20th north up from Constitution. Lincoln Memorial crowds may be a little thinner.

[bentbike33]

@SurlyTed1187 137335 wrote:

I recently moved to N. Alexandria (Arlandria), and work in Takoma Park, MD. It’s a 13.5 mile commute in the mornings if I come the most direct route. I’m
finding as the weather is improving, the crowds of tourists are growing around the tidal basin/national mall/white house.

As I come off the 14th street bridge, I have to navigate my way past the TJ memorial, Tidal Basin, National Mall, and White House.

What alternatives during this part of the route have you found to avoid the large crowds of clueless tourists as they visit the monuments, and other sights?

If you’ve got the route worked out between the Mall and Takoma Park, that would be good because I can’t help you there. To get from 14th Street Bridge to the Mall, you could go past the Zone of Perpetual Construction on Maine Ave. and work your way up to 7th Street. 7th is on the west side of the Air and Space Museum, but otherwise relatively far from the biggest tourist attractions.

In the morning, I take Maine Ave. to 9th, to G St. SW (one-way east) to 7th. In the afternoon, I go from 7th to 9th via Capitol Square Pl. (a “private” road with speed bumps, but not gated). To go west on Maine Ave. you must ride on the Anacostia Riverwalk (a.k.a., the “eastbound” sidewalk) because there is no place to turn left onto Ohio Drive from Maine Ave. westbound. This seems to avoid most of the Cherry Blossom madness.

[Emm]

@bentbike33 137346 wrote:

In the morning, I take Maine Ave. to 9th, to G St. SW (one-way east) to 7th. In the afternoon, I go from 7th to 9th via Capitol Square Pl. (a “private” road with speed bumps, but not gated). To go west on Maine Ave. you must ride on the Anacostia Riverwalk (a.k.a., the “eastbound” sidewalk) because there is no place to turn left onto Ohio Drive from Maine Ave. westbound. This seems to avoid most of the Cherry Blossom madness.

Question on this because I’ve been considering this route so I want to make sure I understand what you’re saying–do you ride on the eastbound sidewalk from 9th to ohio drive along maine ave? That seems like a long way on the sidewalk, but after yesterday’s nuthouse on the mall, I think it may be worth it to try…

I find mornings are never bad, even during Cherry Blossom Festival, but then again I get to work between 7:30-8, so tourists aren’t that bad yet along the mall.

[Steve O]

An alternative to Maine that I have been using to go to Nationals Park is to take the Case Bridge after crossing the 14th St. Bridge, and then G Street SW.
If you’re going to turn up 7th St. SW or something like that, then you can totally avoid the ZPC (Zone of Perpetual Construction).

Look at this Strava track:
https://www.strava.com/activities/396805145

Or this one for a different way to access the bridge:
https://www.strava.com/activities/351323668

[bentbike33]

@Emm 137350 wrote:

Question on this because I’ve been considering this route so I want to make sure I understand what you’re saying–do you ride on the eastbound sidewalk from 9th to ohio drive along maine ave? That seems like a long way on the sidewalk, but after yesterday’s nuthouse on the mall, I think it may be worth it to try…

I find mornings are never bad, even during Cherry Blossom Festival, but then again I get to work between 7:30-8, so tourists aren’t that bad yet along the mall.

Please bear with me, it’s a little hard to explain verbally, and Strava never manages to capture it accurately because of the bridges interfering with the GPS signal, so I won’t bother referring you.

Because of the construction, the sidewalk on eastbound Maine Avenue starts (stops) at the easternmost entrance to the SW Waterfront fish market where a (probably temporary) traffic light has been installed. I take the lane on westbound Maine Avenue (or the sidewalk if the lanes are hopelessly jammed) and go left at the traffic light into the fish market entrance and proceed westward on the “eastbound” sidewalk. It’s probably 2/3rds of the way between 9th and Ohio on the sidewalk, but the sidewalk is broad (it was widened when they removed a car lane from Maine Ave. but DID NOT put in a bike lane several years ago?!?) and usually does not have many peds on it. I stay on the sidewalk on Ohio until the crosswalk just before the entrance to Haines Point, then take the right lane on Ohio/East Basin Drive to the 14th Street Bridge trail.

Does that help?

[mello yello]

even 9:00 – 9:30 isn’t too bad with the tourist crowds, although it’s starting to fill up. I come east-west, so by way of Maine Ave to Ohio Dr. Sometimes I hop on the sidewalk in front of the fish market from Maine, and sometimes I take Case Bridge from Banneker Park to Ohio Drive.

After the 14th St Bridge, you could double back (hard left, take the road) toward Ohio Drive and head left toward Hains Point, then take the Case Bridge to get over to G street, over to 4th, and then north…

Or, vice versa.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]11326[/ATTACH]

[Emm]

@bentbike33 137360 wrote:

Please bear with me, it’s a little hard to explain verbally, and Strava never manages to capture it accurately because of the bridges interfering with the GPS signal, so I won’t bother referring you.

Because of the construction, the sidewalk on eastbound Maine Avenue starts (stops) at the easternmost entrance to the SW Waterfront fish market where a (probably temporary) traffic light has been installed. I take the lane on westbound Maine Avenue (or the sidewalk if the lanes are hopelessly jammed) and go left at the traffic light into the fish market entrance and proceed westward on the “eastbound” sidewalk. It’s probably 2/3rds of the way between 9th and Ohio on the sidewalk, but the sidewalk is broad (it was widened when they removed a car lane from Maine Ave. but DID NOT put in a bike lane several years ago?!?) and usually does not have many peds on it. I stay on the sidewalk on Ohio until the crosswalk just before the entrance to Haines Point, then take the right lane on Ohio/East Basin Drive to the 14th Street Bridge trail.

Does that help?

I think so…I may try this evening and hopefully not die. So take the lane/sidewalk going westbound on Maine after 9th st until you hit a light that goes into the fishmarket. Then cross over, and take the eastbound sidewalk. Does that sound right?

[bentbike33]

@Emm 137397 wrote:

I think so…I may try this evening and hopefully not die. So take the lane/sidewalk going westbound on Maine after 9th st until you hit a light that goes into the fishmarket. Then cross over, and take the eastbound sidewalk. Does that sound right?

Exactly. Yesterday there was a lot of cherry blossom traffic on this route, however, so you might consider the Case Bridge routes suggested above by Steve O and mello yello. My bike won’t do the switchbacks, so I’ll be braving the crowds. But after the cherry blossoms are gone, things should lighten up and return to normal.

[mello yello]

@bentbike33 137404 wrote:

Exactly. Yesterday there was a lot of cherry blossom traffic on this route, however, so you might consider the Case Bridge routes suggested above by Steve O and mello yello. My bike won’t do the switchbacks, so I’ll be braving the crowds. But after the cherry blossoms are gone, things should lighten up and return to normal.

Yeah, this morning I was riding in the right lane and a bus was stopped in the right lane… should have gotten left, but instead I decided to split the parked bus / right lane stopped bus… sure enough, when I got halfway up stopped bus opened the door in front of me. I can’t wait to have Water Street back so I can avoid Maine altogether. Water Street used to connect right to the fish market parking lot, making for a convenient low-traffic alternate. It would still require jumping on the eastbound sidewalk going westbound in front of the marina.

[SurlyTed1187]

@huskerdont 137344 wrote:

You could stay on the MVT a little longer and use either the TR Bridge or Key Bridge. Not sure how that affects your route or route distance, but either would get you past most of the tourist traffic.

When commuting to Lanham, I used to ride up the CCT from Key Bridge then drop off and cross Rock Creek Park using Chestnut/Wise and Sherrill/Aspen, then ride through Takoma Park. It added mileage but kept me away from areas I didn’t want to bike through. Other than a brief bit along Beach Drive, it was pretty low stress (until crossing the Anacostia, which wouldn’t affect you).

Crossing over on TR or Key would definitely add some considerable time to my morning commute, which I don’t know that I can afford without waking up earlier than I already am. But I did come home across TR on one of my commutes so far. I connected to the RCP trail and took it down to the river, then came up around the Kennedy Center to cross TR bridge. That was a pretty good alternative to the mall/tidal basin crowds.

I think I’ll keep my morning commute up 15th and deal with whatever crowds may be out first thing in the morning. As for the afternoon, I think I’ll be going wide to avoid the WH/Mall areas.

[Emm]

The Case Bridge genius, thanks everyone for that recommendation. Light traffic through SW (I took E to 7th to Capitol Sq Place to 9th to the bridge), and I got to do the most beautiful loop through the blossoms at Hains Point last night. I think this may be my new route home, even after the Cherry Blossoms end. It’s way less congested than my normal route across the Mall.

[GovernorSilver]

Belated thanks, likewise, from me.

I’d done the morning ride before, but didn’t know of a good evening route. Capitol Square Pl SW looks like just the ticket for a low-stress shortcut from 7th St. to 9th St and that Case Bridge entrance. I’m terrible at switchbacks but would rather practice those than deal with the traffic through the Mall and down 15th St towards TJ memorial in the afternoon, as tourism season gets into full swing. 😎

[Author]

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